"Backlit Peonie"

8x6

Oil On Board

This small study I did standing in my garden. I was interested in capturing this amazingly strong Back light and the softness it radiated. It was vibrating color, life and grace!

Two White Peonies

"Two White Peonies"

Oil On Linen

I cut these TWO peonies from my front garden. I had been waiting for these to bloom and had a vision of painting a huge bunch of them. . however as it turns out, we do not have any say on when 'they' decided to bloom! :) So with that said, I give you "Two White Peonies"gracefully placed in this cool old tea pot. :) Now nauturally they have all bloomed, it has rained, and they are gone until next year, sometime in June. I hope you enjoy this beautiful moment of blooming as much as I do!

Painting Peonies!

Painting Peonies. . . with a cat. . .

This is my studio at home where I've been working since the kids have been off for summer vacation. . . vacation for THEM. ;) We did get out and paint the river last night which was gorgeous but I plan to do as many still life pieces as possible this summer as the seasonal flowers change. I've always wanted to take the time to do this and I think this will be the summer! It all started with the lilacs. . . . . so here we go!

. . now to get a descent photo of this painting close up

Robin's Egg Blue

"Robin's Egg Blue"

Oil On Linen

I have this little wooden blue bird in my kitchen that I just love, so I decided to paint it! My kids found this abandoned nest in a pine tree in our yard and the eggs were off an old Easter decoration. It's a little more 'whimsical' than I normally paint but I just love the colors in this. You can't see the texture very well in the image but there are many layers of scraped on and off paint on the table top surface. It was fun creating depth in this area.

"Lilaca"

8x6 Oil On Linen Board

The lilacs are in full bloom and fragrant here in Minnesota! I love the lilacs and couldn't resist painting these in my front yard yesterday. I might try the white ones today. . . . :)

2 Color Workshops!

~Some of the painters in the past workshops~

Color Temperature Workshops

~Demo~

this demo is not quite finished but it has the emphasized structure in temp. that we were focusing on.

It was ALL about Color Temperature!

Last week, I again had the privilege of painting with some very inspiring and eager painters! I held 2 workshops back to back at my studio last Thursday through Sunday. We worked steady and hard the four days and our focus was COLOR. What a treat to have 4 full days to focus completely on c0lor and it's relationship to it's surrounding temps.

There are so many important and necessary elements to creating a painting, and not one of those elements ever completely leaves my mind when teaching and or painting. However, there is something to be said for having a workshop that seriously focuses on breaking down the nuts and bolts of one of those elements, my favorite. . . color!